Russia to invite observers from all continents to monitor presidential election

MOSCOW - 27 December 2017: Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) will send invitations to electoral bodies in about 100 countries to monitor the upcoming presidential election in Russia scheduled for March 18, 2018, CEC Chairperson Ella Pamfilova told TASS on Tuesday.

"We cooperate and work with many related organizations in nearly one hundred countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa. They are our partners, colleagues on all continents. We actively correspond, interact with them and will invite [them], of course," she said.

According to Pamfilova, the CEC also cooperates with "a number of international associations," adding that the commission could send invitations to them.

"And, of course, we will be working closely with the OSCE ODIHR’s mission, because we are bound by serious international treaties… I believe the mission can be very extensive, we are interested in that, because we want representatives of many countries to see how the election will proceed," Pamfilova stressed.

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) earlier decided to send 80 long-term and 420 short-term observers to Russia following work by its Election Assessment Mission in Russia.